CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Woodrow Wilson outlasted Martinsburg on Thursday 69-58 in a physical, back-and-forth boys basketball quarterfinal.
“Anytime you play Martinsburg, it’s going to be a battle,” said Woodrow Wilson coach Ron Kidd. “We expected it to be a battle and a war. I’m just glad that we won the rebounding war, I think that’s where we won the game.
No. 4 Woodrow Wilson (24-2) dominated the glass 54-26, including a 24-4 edge in offensive boards and 19 second chance points to Martinsburg’s four.
“That’s something that we work on a lot,” said Beckley’s Nequan Carrington. “When we’re at practice, we always focus on boxing-out and that’s what the coaches preach – rebounding and boxing out. If you out-rebound a team, that’s a key win in any game.”
Beckley led 31-28 at the break and extended that lead out to 10, 51-41, at the 1:40 mark of the third quarter.
Back-to-back 3s from Martinsburg’s Jarrell Jones and Jessiya Villa early in the 4th, though, cut Beckley’s lead down to 55-54 and 6:23 remaining. Two Jones’ free throws put the Bulldogs in front, 56-55, before a Villa jumper extended it out to 58-55 and 4:59 to go.
“I think our leadership and our team effort stood out during that run,” Villa said. “But Woodrow Wilson is an outstanding ball club and they were able to counter our effort. We shot the ball well and played well as a team during that run. But Beckley is outstanding and they countered it.”
The Flying Eagles countered by shutting down Martinsburg offensively in the final 4:59, ending the game on a 14-0 run as the Bulldogs missed all of their final eight shots.
“I thought we just locked-up on defense,” Kidd said. “Our kids found a will to win that game. I’m just so proud of the way they played. Once (Martinsburg) took the lead, we could have folded, but our kids didn’t fold.”
Carrington led the Flying Eagles with 17 points and 12 rebounds. It was Breland Walton coming off of the bench, though, to score 16 points and grab eight rebounds in the win.
“My mindset was to just come off the bench and be ready, to help out my team,” Walton said. “I wanted to bring new energy to the court and do whatever I could to help my team out.”
He couldn’t have done a much better job of doing just that on Thursday.
“He brings us a spark,” Kidd said of Walton. “He’s really a starter, he just doesn’t know that. He’s a starter in a sense, but anytime you have a guy come off the bench and do stuff like that, it’s awesome.”
Ty Walton and Isaiah Francis also scored 12 points apiece for Beckley, while Courtney Walton scored six points and grabbed 16 rebounds.
Villa led No. 5 Martinsburg (21-5) with 19 points in the loss, while Jarrell Jones added 14 points.
Beckley moves on to face No. 1 Morgantown on Friday evening at 5:30 p.m.
“(Morgantown) is so patient and well coached,” Kidd said. “They don’t do anything too beat themselves. We’re going to have to do what we do and impose our will on them, because that’s what they’re going to try to do to us.”
Watch players and coaches respond in postgame: